Remembering Simpsons Co-Creator Sam Simon

Sam Simon, one of the three people responsible for co-creating The Simpsons, died today after a long battle with colon cancer. Although Simon, who also wrote for Cheers, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show and was Taxi’s showrunner for its final season in 1983, officially left The Simpsons in 1993, he is still credited with hiring most of its original writing staff and developing the irreverent tone which eventually turn it into the longest running sitcom of all time. As former Simpsons writer John Vitti told the New York Times in 2001, "if you leave out Sam Simon, you’re telling the managed version. He was the guy we wrote for."

Here are the five most memorable moments from some of the early episodes he co-wrote:

The Raven

Simon is the one responsible for adapting Edgar Allen Poe’s poem of the same name for the original Treehouse of Horror episode. It is still seen by many as the exact moment _The Simpsons _learned to marry high and low-brow culture in the name of humor.

The "Deal" With Smithers

According to the DVD commentary of the first season of The Simpsons, Simon was the person who first proposed making Mr. Burns’ assistant Smithers gay, and then never actually fulling confirming whether he was or not.

The Telltale Head

Another early example of low-brow culture mid in with high-brow literary references. The episode, which gets its name from the The Tell-Tale Heart—another Edgar Allen Poe short story—sees Bart struggle with the moral repercussions of chopping off a statue of Jebediah Springfield’s head in the name of being cool.

Two Cars in Every Garage Three Cars on Every Fish

People have said you can create a shot-for-shot remake of Citizen Kane using just clips from from The Simpsons. And although that might not be entirely true, you could definitely come close, and this episode, which sees Mr. Burns run for Governor (of whichever state Springfield is in) will definitely help you get more than half of the way.

Homer at the Bat

According to the season 3 DVD commentary, Simon pitch the initial idea for the episode, which sees Homer compete against MLB superstars like Daryl Strawberry and Jose Canseco for a place on the Springfield Nuclear Power Plan softball team.